My kid is going to McGill. Bank recommendations?

My kid will attend McGill downtown Montreal campus as an international student. She will need to open a bank account. McGill lists the following banks as being within walking distance of the campus: Bank of Montreal, Scotiabank, National Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Canada, TD Bank, CIBC, ING Direct. Does anybody have any recommendations? Thanks in advance.

TD Bank.

All are fine, traditional, and very competent, with ING Direct and National Bank being outliers. I think that the recommendation of TD (Toronto Dominion) by the previous, Toronto based poster is tongue in cheek, McGill being in Montreal, a traditional rival of Toronto.

TD was probably recommended because they have a really convenient cross-border banking arrangement if you live in the NE or Florida where they have US-based branches. You can set up a US-based TD account and a Canada based one for your child, and manage both accounts conveniently online, in person, and transfer funds instantly.

All the big banks are fine really. ING and National Bank are not very well known nationally. I’ve used BMO, RBC, HSBC, and all are pretty comparable for the usual consumer personal banking.

If you’re not in the US, HSBC may be a good option as they have great international cross-border type arrangements especially in Asia. When I moved to the US, I thought that Citibank would be a good option, but Citi’s financial establishments outside of the US are not all full-service, so there’s actually very little you can do internationally on a Citi account except in some select countries.

I would also recommend TD.

We have an account at CIBC – my wife is Canadian and her family has accounts at CIBC. When my daughter attended a Canadian university, we set up an account for her. Very good service, but likely because of her family’s accounts there.

We have an account at TD in the US and have investigated but haven’t set up the US-Canadian feature, but if we didn’t have Canadian accounts already, we would have used TD for our daughter when she was in Canada.

Do you have a branch of any of those banks near where you live? If so, I’d go with that.

FWIW my S has an account with TD (opened when he was a freshman in college since it was the bank with ATMs on campus but he has kept the account since he graduated) and has been happy with their service.

I have an account at TD in the US and have been very happy with their service.

And since you don’t live in Canada, I recommend Transferwise to move funds into her account. I use it all the time for my kid at UBC. It’s safe, quick (takes about 2-3 days) and you’ll save a bundle.

TD and HSBC information on international banking at their banks:
https://www.tdbank.com/personal/cross-border-banking.html
https://www.us.hsbc.com/online-banking/move-money/#global-transfers

We did TD because there is also a branch in our town center. It worked out well for our son. You will open a U.S. account and a Canadian account.

My son will be a U1 this year (Faculty of Arts). We are from the Boston area. First (if you aren’t already) you should join the McGill International Parent Community on Facebook. Lots of us connect there to work through McGill logistics. Also, feel free to PM me if you have any questions.